The Wicked Pilgrim

In the year 2020 a tiny, poorly designed, ill-equipped, wooden sailing ship will be the focus of attention for millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic. The occasion will be the 400 year anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower on the shores of North America, carrying the first settlers from Europe in 1620. However, the star attraction will not be the original Mayflower but a replica that was built by an Englishman, Warwick Charlton. Although he had no financial resources and no knowledge of sailing ships, he built Mayflower II in under 2 years. Then he sailed it to America in 1957 and gave it to the American people. Over the last 60 years Mayflower II has become a national icon, visited by over 25 million Americans and seen by many millions more on television, the printed press and the Internet. This replica is now considered so valuable that it has been lovingly restored at a cost of $7.5 million. This is the true story of Warwick Charlton, his storm-tossed life in war and peacetime, how and why he built Mayflower II and his continuing connection with the ship. It is a story that involves larger than life characters, suspicion, conspiracy, deception and finally triumph against all odds; a story that in many ways mirrors the trials of the first settlers to set foot on North American soil in 1620. Above all, it is a story of a man who had an intense love of history, democracy and the United States; an adventurer without an ounce of fear.